Album reviews: Luscious Jackson and James Brown

Published: Friday, November 8, 2013 at 07:32 AM.

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New album: Magic Hour Artist: Luscious Jackson Label: City Song Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Luscious Jackson's impressive run of smart, melodically soulful groove music stopped with the underrated "Electric Honey" album in 1999. After a decade of solo and side projects, the band has reconvened for "Magic Hour".

Spawned from the same New York scene that produced the first incarnation of the Beastie Boys (Luscious Jackson drummer Kate Schellenbach was the Beastie's original drummer), Luscious Jackson traded in funk, rock, hip hop and Bacharach-esque psychedelia. "Magic Hour" finds the band in great form - both as writers and performers - with their signature sound fully entact.

Vocalists Gabby Glaser and Jill Cunniff are as sultry as ever, lending an air of intrigue to nearly every inch of "Magic Hour". The pair's duet on "You And Me" hits the same buttons that got people hooked on the band when "Citysong" and "Naked Eye" were first released. The production is crisp, and Schellenbach's ability to play deep in the pocket has never been better.

"#1 Burn" and "Are You Ready?" would probably be top ten hits if Luscious Jackson had the machinery of a major label behind them. Both songs feature vocal hooks that are miles ahead of anything Katy Perry has birthed, not to mention the inventive arrangements that rival the work the band did with producer Daniel Lanois on the legendary "Fever In, Fever Out" album.

Multi-instrumentalists Cunniff and Glaser create mini-symphonies for "Frequency" and "3 Seconds To Cross", all while churning out melodies and beats that evoke the air of some undiscovered dance from the shores if Ibiza. This album is classic Luscious Jackson, which isn't to say it isn't contemporary because their sound has proven to be timeless.

New album: Magic Hour
Artist: Luscious Jackson
Label: City Song
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Luscious Jackson's impressive run of smart, melodically soulful groove music stopped with the underrated "Electric Honey" album in 1999. After a decade of solo and side projects, the band has reconvened for "Magic Hour".

Spawned from the same New York scene that produced the first incarnation of the Beastie Boys (Luscious Jackson drummer Kate Schellenbach was the Beastie's original drummer), Luscious Jackson traded in funk, rock, hip hop and Bacharach-esque psychedelia. "Magic Hour" finds the band in great form - both as writers and performers - with their signature sound fully entact.

Vocalists Gabby Glaser and Jill Cunniff are as sultry as ever, lending an air of intrigue to nearly every inch of "Magic Hour". The pair's duet on "You And Me" hits the same buttons that got people hooked on the band when "Citysong" and "Naked Eye" were first released. The production is crisp, and Schellenbach's ability to play deep in the pocket has never been better.

"#1 Burn" and "Are You Ready?" would probably be top ten hits if Luscious Jackson had the machinery of a major label behind them. Both songs feature vocal hooks that are miles ahead of anything Katy Perry has birthed, not to mention the inventive arrangements that rival the work the band did with producer Daniel Lanois on the legendary "Fever In, Fever Out" album.

Multi-instrumentalists Cunniff and Glaser create mini-symphonies for "Frequency" and "3 Seconds To Cross", all while churning out melodies and beats that evoke the air of some undiscovered dance from the shores if Ibiza. This album is classic Luscious Jackson, which isn't to say it isn't contemporary because their sound has proven to be timeless.

Any music fan with an affection for sharp melodic structure deep groove will be pleased with "Magic Hour", and don't call it a comeback.

After a disagreement the legendary band that fueled his initial classic 1960s period, James Brown recruited a younger band looking to make their bones with the Godfather of Funk. Included in this new batch of upstarts was bass virtuoso Bootsy Collins and his brother Catfish Collins on guitar, and the oft-sampled drummer Jabo Sparks.

In time Brown would be reunited with many of his original musicians, but the music he with these new musicians in 1970 is some of the most influential music of the 20th century. Instead of focusing on concise, radio-friendly singles, Brown was now leading his band through extended jams. Brown may have been following the lead of rock bands who were flirting with longer song structures, but it doesn't matter because the unedited, nine-minute version of "Super Bad" included here may be the funkiest song ever recorded.

If you have any energy left after "Super Bad", this collection also features the equally stunning "Get Up", "There Was A Time", "Soul Power" and the Zen jam that is "Give It Up or Turn It Loose". Brown's 14-minute take on directionless protest - "Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothing" - should be printed on our currency.

The music collected on "Funk Power 1970" has also given many hip-hop stars careers, as most of their work is either based on or directly lifted from the ferociously inventive music Brown, the Collins brothers and Sparks created during their short time together. A thousand producers with a thousand laptops can't synthetically manufacture what these guys created together, although they'll probably keep trying.

Jon Dawson's album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon's book "Making Gravy In Public" at Amazon.com or jondawson.com.